Got new shin armor from Spat recently. I needed to replace my previous pair by an unknown maker (got it second hand), and it certainly does the trick!
My old pair is undersized, is probably a recast, and the plastic is too thin, resulting in tears. You can see some tearing here:
The gloppiness is my attempt to reinforce the part with multiple layers of JB Weld (painted silver). Didn't last.
Spat to the rescue. New pair on top:
I ordered flat black but that was just as a base coat. Covered that with a generous coat of silver, then OD green, then USCM green, then the rest of the colors of the camo pattern. As I did with the rest of my armor a year and a half ago, I hand-brushed latex house paint color-matched to the appropriate Humbrol paints.
As you can see from the old part I paint the insides silver as well (a tip someone posted here way back) in order to complete the illusion it's metal. Unlikely anyone would see it in a costuming situation, but still. On the outside I like to have a silver coat because the paint will scratch and chip down to "metal" as the armor suffers convention abuse. On the way it passes through OD green, and if it goes through to the base black layer, that's okay, too! Makes for interesting happy accidents. Another reason for the OD layer is for any possible spots that I don't get completely opaque coverage of the USCM green. Looks better showing through than the silver.
Due to my chisled, manly calf muscles of steel, I had to drill out the rivets in the webbing between the front and back pieces and replace them with longer pieces of green nylon webbing leftover from a pair of load-bearing suspenders I had previously cannibalized. I also painted all of the black webbing green.
One of the back pieces is green because I thought it would make the costume more interesting to have a couple of "replaced" parts that my USCM self never got around to painting. While I was replacing the straps I took the opportunity to use a mismatched piece (in this case, OD cotton webbing from a surplus M16 sling)--again, to further illustrate the fictional "repair" to the armor.
Weathering was done with soot from my kerosene heater, and some silver paint scraped on from a painted piece of scrap plastic.
I also added more foam to the insides of the kneeplates by cutting up cheap foam kneepads from Home Depot. I did this with the old pair and it helped a lot to be able to take a knee for photos or whatever. They never broke, and if they scratched...hey, weathering!
Another look:
Thanks, Spat!
old thread about the rest of my armor:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=3467
My old pair is undersized, is probably a recast, and the plastic is too thin, resulting in tears. You can see some tearing here:
The gloppiness is my attempt to reinforce the part with multiple layers of JB Weld (painted silver). Didn't last.
Spat to the rescue. New pair on top:
I ordered flat black but that was just as a base coat. Covered that with a generous coat of silver, then OD green, then USCM green, then the rest of the colors of the camo pattern. As I did with the rest of my armor a year and a half ago, I hand-brushed latex house paint color-matched to the appropriate Humbrol paints.
As you can see from the old part I paint the insides silver as well (a tip someone posted here way back) in order to complete the illusion it's metal. Unlikely anyone would see it in a costuming situation, but still. On the outside I like to have a silver coat because the paint will scratch and chip down to "metal" as the armor suffers convention abuse. On the way it passes through OD green, and if it goes through to the base black layer, that's okay, too! Makes for interesting happy accidents. Another reason for the OD layer is for any possible spots that I don't get completely opaque coverage of the USCM green. Looks better showing through than the silver.
Due to my chisled, manly calf muscles of steel, I had to drill out the rivets in the webbing between the front and back pieces and replace them with longer pieces of green nylon webbing leftover from a pair of load-bearing suspenders I had previously cannibalized. I also painted all of the black webbing green.
One of the back pieces is green because I thought it would make the costume more interesting to have a couple of "replaced" parts that my USCM self never got around to painting. While I was replacing the straps I took the opportunity to use a mismatched piece (in this case, OD cotton webbing from a surplus M16 sling)--again, to further illustrate the fictional "repair" to the armor.
Weathering was done with soot from my kerosene heater, and some silver paint scraped on from a painted piece of scrap plastic.
I also added more foam to the insides of the kneeplates by cutting up cheap foam kneepads from Home Depot. I did this with the old pair and it helped a lot to be able to take a knee for photos or whatever. They never broke, and if they scratched...hey, weathering!
Another look:
Thanks, Spat!
old thread about the rest of my armor:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=3467
:cool
